The Week in Alternative Fuels
Here are some of the key developments in alternative bunker fuels from the past week.
PHOTO: A variety of possible structure designs for a nuclear-powered floating ammonia production facility. Core Power
Nuclear power developer Core Power plans to use floating offshore platforms powered by nuclear energy to mass-produce ammonia as a marine fuel.
Commodity trading giant Trafigura has teamed up with green hydrogen firm Hy2gen and Danish fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners to develop an ammonia production facility in Norway's Sauda municipality. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, MOL and Kansai Electric have set out to explore floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) for ammonia.
Ammonia has been gaining serious traction as a future fuel lately. This week it was announced that the world's first ammonia-ready vessel has been delivered to Greece shipping company Avin International.
Samsung Heavy Industries has developed a carbon-capturing scrubber to reduce emissions from both conventional and LNG-fuelled vessels.
Shipping company NYK Line and renewables company Power X plan to develop and test different types of electric vessels.
The ports of Los Angeles and Shanghai, together with the C40 Cities coalition, seek to bring the world's first zero-carbon container ships into operation on the trans-Pacific cargo route by 2030.
Here are the top five stories in alternative fuels this week:
Core Power sets out concept for atomic green ammonia plant for shipping
UK-based nuclear power developer Core Power has released a report citing plans to use floating offshore platforms powered by nuclear energy to mass-produce ammonia as a marine fuel.
The company proposes an offshore floating power facility housing an atomic reactor and power conversion system.
Core Power has partnered with Terrapower to develop a molten salt reactor (MSR), which will use high assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) to produce heat that can be converted to electricity.
The offshore power facility would generate heat or electricity transferred to a nearby offshore ammonia production plant. Separate installations can prevent dangerous interactions and make it safer to produce green ammonia with nuclear energy, the company claims.
Ammonia could be produced from abundant seawater and air through electrolysis. Saltwater would be pumped out of the sea and desalinated, with resultant freshwater fed into electrolyser cells to produce hydrogen and oxygen.
The hydrogen can be compressed and combined with nitrogen extracted from atmospheric air to produce ammonia through the well-known Haber-Bosch process.
Core Power says electrolysers are key in ammonia production and typically require steady access to renewable electricity.
An atomic energy-powered ammonia plant can run over 90% of the time, which is far more than plants powered with electricity from intermittent wind (35%) and solar (24%), it says citing US figures from 2020 on utility scale generators.
So-called solid oxide electrolysers (SOEC) are particularly interesting as they can use heat in addition to electricity as energy, Core Power says.
The ammonia production plant would be emission-free and have tanks to store ammonia, before it is loaded onto feeder vessels or bunker barges.
It would initially have capacity to produce 1 million mt of ammonia per year using 1.2 GW of electric power, which would be reduced to 0.9 GW by 2050, says Core Power.
If it can produce 1 million mt of ammonia would be equivalent to 400,000 mt of VLSFO. Ammonia only has about 40% of the energy content of VLSFO, so ships fuelled with ammonia would need about 2.5 times more fuel, the company says.
Nuclear energy is by no means widespread in fuel production, but last November the US Department of Energy awarded a grant of $794,000 to the American Bureau of Shipping to commercialise nuclear technology use in the maritime industry.
Trafigura to build Norwegian plant to produce green ammonia for shipping
Trafigura has partnered up with green hydrogen firm Hy2gen and Danish fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners to develop an ammonia production facility in Norway's Sauda municipality.
The green ammonia production facility will be named Iverson eFuels AS and co-owned by the three companies.
“When we started looking for a location for our green ammonia plant in Norway, Sauda emerged as the epitome. The accessibility to abundant green energy from hydropower, a good harbour for exports, an attractive production site...,” Hy2gen Group chief executive Cyril Dufau-Sansot said.
The companies envision an electrolyser with 240 MW capacity could produce 600 mt of green ammonia per day while scaling it up considerably over time, says Trafigura.
“Availability of zero emission alternative fuels such as green ammonia is an important pre-requisite to decarbonising the global shipping industry,” said Trafigura’s global head of fuel decarbonisation Rasmus Bach Nielsen.
Construction is expected to start in the first quarter of 2024, pending final investment approval, and ramp up to full production by 2027.
Meanwhile, Japanese shipbuilder Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, ship operator Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) and Kansai Electric Power plan to explore floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) for ammonia. The FSRUs will receive ammonia from the production source in a liquid state, and
Mitsubishi Shipbuilding has also set up formed Marine Decarbonisation Business Development Group to cater to the demand for clean energy carriers as the shipping industry transitions to cleaner fuels.
World’s first ammonia-fuel ready vessel delivered
The vessel meets the American Bureau of Shipping's (ABS) LNG and ammonia-ready standards which means it can easily switch fuel when required.
The duel-fuelled 274-metre-long ABS-class Suezmax tanker Kriti Future built by Xingang-based New Times Shipbuilding was delivered to Greek shipping company Avin International.
These types of vessels provide flexibility to prepare shipowners for a future in which alternative fuels such as ammonia take a bigger role, says ABS manager pf Greece business development Filippos Nikolatsopoulos.
Samsung develops carbon-capturing scrubber for LNG-powered vessels
A newly developed onboard capture and storage system (CCS) is expected to reduce emissions from both conventional and LNG-fuelled vessels.
South Korean firms Samsung Heavy Industries and Panasia have received an approval in principle (AIP) from the Korean Register of Shipping (KR) for the scrubber system they have developed. The duo started working on the CCS technology in 2020 and are currently reviewing its performance at Panasia's facility in Jinhae.
The scrubber technology uses an amine-based liquid absorbent to separate and recover carbon dioxide from exhaust gases released by ship engines or generators.
“The combination of LNG propulsion technology and carbon capture technology is expected to be a realistic eco-friendly solution to the IMO's carbon emission regulations," says head of Samsung's eco-friendly research centre Park Geon-il.
Samsung considers to commercialise this system by 2024 for LNG-powered vessels.
If Samsung or others can make CSS scrubbers operationally and economically viable for installation on LNG-powered vessels, they could help curb LNG's carbon emissions, which are currently about a quarter compared to conventional oil-based bunker fuels.
LNG has so far been considered as a near-term solution to rein in shipping emissions, while less of a longer-term option to achieve zero emissions.
Ports of Los Angeles and Shanghai to launch trans-Pacific green corridor
The ports of Los Angeles and Shanghai, together with the C40 Cities coalition, aim to introduce an implementation plan for the green corridor by the end of this year.
Under the initiative, the ports aim to make strides towards decarbonising cargo shipping between the US and China, and also cut emissions from operations in port.
They seek to bring ships powered by zero-carbon fuels into operation on the trans-Pacific cargo route by 2030, including the world's first zero-carbon container ships.
The C40 Cities collective comprises mayors of 100 cities from around the world, collaborating to limit global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels and in line with Paris Agreement goals.
Shipping companies Maersk and CMA CGM, the Shanghai International Ports Group and COSCO Shipping Lines are part of the green corridor initiative.
They are also joined by the Aspen Institute, which was instrumental in setting up the Cargo Owners for Zero Emission Vessels (coZEV) consortium last year. The consortium pledged a move to zero carbon shipping by 2040, with backing from Amazon, IKEA, Unilever and other freight heavyweights announced in October.
Green aspirations peaked in the lead-up to COP26 in November, when the US, UK, and 20 other countries signed the Clydebank Declaration to support six zero emission maritime routes between two or more ports by 2025.
